J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1936 lecture The Monsters and the Critics focused on the Old English poem Beowulf.
Tolkien delivered the lecture at the British Academy in 1936. He argued that scholars had undervalued the poem’s artistic structure by treating it mainly as evidence for history, folklore, or language. Tolkien emphasized the poem’s monsters, especially Grendel and the dragon, as essential to its design rather than as embarrassing distractions.
The lecture became one of the most influential modern studies of Beowulf. It helped redirect critical attention toward the poem as a work of literature and strongly influenced later academic discussion of Old English poetry.
The title is sometimes mistaken for a work of fiction by Tolkien. It is an academic lecture and essay, not a Middle-earth story. Tolkien’s interest in Beowulf also influenced his own writing, including his use of heroic traditions, monsters, inherited treasure, and the tension between a glorious past and an approaching end.